2030 PL Preview

The season is getting ready to start, and everyone is getting hyped about their team. not everyone can do well though, and this preview is here to remind you what that can look like. Every team has a .gif that previews what things will look like if things don’t work out how they hope it will. Have a fun and great season everyone!

Phoenix

Phoenix just wants to have a good time and celebrate their winning last year. They have a right too as that team was very good and this year doesn’t look like it will be a let down either. However, if they try too hard to make a trade for the holes that they see, it could blow up in their face. The team as presently constructed should win the PL easily and while they do have holes, there is no reason to try to overreact to them, because all teams have holes. The only team that can bring this team down is themselves… and the OOTP devs, they can also bring the team down.

Panama City

PC made a lot of trades this offseason to try to get rid of the monkey on their back in terms of money and contracts. They still have some of those contracts hanging around though and this make it hard for them to make those final moves to finally catch up to Phoenix. Starting pitching and outfield are going to prove to be an issue for the team until at least next winter. Second place is still very respectable, but those moves they couldn’t make are going to drag them down and Matt will fall short of his first Championship in this league, and it will hurt doubly bad as it will be lost to his former team.

DC

DC did well in the SL last year, but they did run over on base runs and they made very few changes to their team over the offseason. This isn’t bad, but if their players take a step back from moving up a league they could be in a rough place. The offense also struggled the last time it was in the PL, they have some of those same players still, so we will have to see if it goes better the second time around. While I see them as a third-place team, they could easily fall down to 7th with an unlucky break. They must remember that just because they got the speed to be able to jump over the bush doesn’t mean that the work is done. Only the first part is finished.

Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia has watched teams before them makes trades, sign big players and then go on to win titles. They are trying to do the same now, but it’s possible they picked the wrong time to make these trades. They traded away their former pitcher of the year winner, signed an old IFA who already is having chronic back soreness and have a lot of questions in the infield with a lot of young players that haven’t proven themselves. Don’t be surprised if this team stumbles and falls down to 7th place either, but I am going to give them the nod for that final playoff spot as it stands now.

Vancouver

Vancouver is trying to pull off the cool party trick of being good in the PL, retooling and then coming back and being good again. They still have a bit to go being the first season in the PL. The thing about party tricks though is that they can go wrong and all of a sudden you have a huge problem to deal with and not a lot of ways to deal with it. Vancouver doesn’t have a lot of assets to go get someone if they need it and they have a lot of young players, especially pitchers and key hitters, that are going to be transitioning up to a harder league. If they struggle, there is not a lot of room to make moves. There going to be just hoping to contain the flames.

Boston

No, that is not a prediction on how they are going to do this season. It’s instead how everyone feels about the fact that they are no longer going to be in the playoffs. The days of the mighty Boston rule have started to fade and if the trades continue as they have this offseason, this prediction might be to high even. They were in danger for a while last year of not making the playoffs, but trading away Kato and Rivera hurts an already aging team. Expect a few more trades before the year is out and for those wins to maybe be in fewer and further between.

Atlanta

Atlanta has made a life of doing just enough to stay competitive and skirting on the edges of disaster. No matter how much you think they are going to fall, they seem to just keep it together and just keep on clicking. I predict this is the year they really start to fall down the mountain though, because the smoke and mirrors can only last for so long. Luckily, the teams below them are a lot worse than them, so even that tumble off the mountain won’t hurt too much, because there is others to pad the fall.

Richardson City

Richardson City has always been seen as the gentleman of the PL. They were the team that was supposed to be the good guy to counterbalance the evil Boston teams. They came close, but they never could quite get over that last hump. They always tried to do the right thing and help the lady across the raging water, but the evil was just too much and always won in the end. This seems like it’s the end of the Richardson City era, but lucky for them, the teams below them are going to give them one more season the big stage, so maybe they will be able to recover, or maybe they will get drug into the raging water as well.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn started out down the hill so well. The crushed the 3L and then breezed through the SL. It looked like they were on a one-way ticket to the top of the PL and then players got old, injuries happened, and the GM stopped caring nearly as much. Now, they have such great speed from an inflated payroll that the fall down the hill is going to be bad, really bad. They had a good run and looked cool doing what they were doing at first, but as with most things where you look really cool, the fall when it fails is pretty hard.

Chicago

The one mighty and proud franchise has fallen on hard time. They had a young team, that had a lot of promising pieces and an active GM, and then Brett stopped caring. Now they find themselves falling down a hill with no real way to slow that momentum downwards. The rumors of a fire sale seem to be true, but the large contracts on the books make getting return for some of the pieces a little harder. They have found a way to get rid of their most expensive player, but sadly he wasn’t the only one taking up space on the accounting page. The new GM will have his work cut out for him, and hopefully after the momentum slows a bit he will be able to regain his bearings and go the right way.